Camp Vulcan now has a new mascot: A bobblehead replica of the famed Vulcan statue in Birmingham.

The bobble-butt.

The bobblehead (which also features a bobble-butt) was one of many gifts in an overflow of packages awaiting me when I returned from leave. Thank you, DavisDenny public relations firm in Birmingham for sending it to us.

DavisDenny also sent a book of photographs of home from Birmingham photographer Karim Shamsi-Basha, Home Sweet Home Alabama. I've worked with Karim before and he is a good man and a talented photographer. The book is perfect for those times I feel homesick.

The real Vulcan statue and I go way back. As a reporter, I broke the story of the statue's disrepair that eventually led to its renovation. I followed the restoration project for The Birmingham News all the way up to the grand re-opening of Vulcan Park.

If you are ever in Birmingham, you need to make it a point to go to Vulcan Park atop Red Mountain and see the largest cast-iron statue in the world. You can find out more by clicking here. I take my own daughters there regularly, and they enjoy it every time.

Now Camp Vulcan has its very own Vulcan statue. Perhaps it's not as grand, but it has added some joy to those of us here, which is grand in its own way.